1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a graininess prediction technology and a profile production technology for printers.
2. Related Art
A conventional technology for predicting the graininess is known by which an ink quantity set is subjected to half tone processing, an ink dot distribution on a printing paper is estimated, and the graininess is quantitatively determined based on the ink dot distribution (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2005-103921). On the other hand, a method is known by which a color patch is actually printed with a printer, the color patch is scanned and the image thus obtained is analyzed, thereby determining the graininess quantitatively (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2005-310098).
When a profile is produced that provides an ink quantity set with good graininess, the graininess has to be determined for a large number of ink quantity sets that include the entire range of ink quantity spaces that can be used by a printer, and an optimum ink set has to be selected. The resultant problem is that it is difficult to perform the simulation and form/evaluate the color patches with respect to a large number of ink quantity sets.